Lakewood, NJ - Prosecutor's Office Takes Over Yeshiva Student Probe

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Lakewood, NJ - The Ocean County Prosecutor's office has taken over the investigation of a yeshiva student who was arrested last month on charges that he scammed an elderly Clifton man out of $33,400, investigators said Wednesday.

The 23-year-old yeshiva student fromBeth Medrash Govoha, was arrested by Clifton police June 11 and charged with theft by deception. He has not been indicted yet, said Deputy Chief Michael Mohel of the prosecutor's office, and is out on bail.

In May, a man claiming to be a New York City lawyer named Richard Stevens called a 78-old-man to inform him he had won $500,000 as the second-place winner in a sweepstakes, according to investigators.

Stevens told the man to send an $8,300 security deposit by FedEx to a Lakewood address before claiming the prize. The man complied.

Stevens then called again, telling the man he was actually the first-place $1 million winner because the original winner turned out not to be an American citizen. Again, the man agreed to send more security money, this time $16,600.

Stevens called a third time saying a mistake had been made, and that another $5,000 was needed. This was followed by a man claiming to be a courier asking for $5,800 for insurance.

"They will go back to the source as many times as they can to drain them until there's no more money or the (victim) realizes something's wrong," said Sgt. Cynthia E. Boyd, who is leading the investigation for the prosecutor's office as part of its senior scam task force.

After sending $35,700 in five separate installments and seeing no return, the man filed a complaint with Clifton police later that month. Detectives tracked the FedEx deliveries to Eliyohu's address at the college. He was not charged with stealing $2,300 of the total because it was sent to an address in Toronto, Sgt. Boyd said.

Administrators at the renowned Orthodox Jewish college did not comment other than to confirm that Eliyohu was a student there and to say they are cooperating with authorities.

Boyd said she started the task force in 2003 after receiving so many calls from conned seniors. The team has made dents since then. Still, in the last five years, the taskforce has handled between 1,000 and 1,500 lottery scams, Boyd said.

Most cases that Boyd handles use overseas wire transfers, making the domestic drop-off in Lakewood via FedEx unusual, she said.

She could not comment if the yeshiva student acted alone or whether any of the money would be retrieved.